The Madras High Court has dismissed two writ appeals from the Indian Maritime University (IMU) challenging a previous ruling that quashed the dismissal of its first vice-chancellor, P. Vijayan. The appeals were rejected by a Division Bench comprising Justices J. Nisha Banu and M. Jothiraman, who upheld Justice C. Saravanan’s April 2022 orders. The single judge had reinstated Vijayan, who had initially filed writ petitions in 2018 against the university’s disciplinary actions.
Vijayan’s career began at the National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) before he became the Director of the National Maritime Academy (NMA) in 2008. Following the merger of NMA with IMU, he served as IMU’s first vice-chancellor. However, he faced legal troubles when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) accused him of possessing disproportionate assets, leading to a charge sheet in 2014.
Despite the inquiry officer finding him not guilty of subsequent charges, including the misuse of university resources, IMU’s executive council decided to impose penalties in 2018. Justice Saravanan ruled that IMU’s service rules did not apply to Vijayan, leading to the dismissal of the university’s actions. The Division Bench criticized IMU for disregarding the inquiry officer’s findings, stating that the basis for disciplinary action was fundamentally weak.
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